Author: Ellen C. Bush

Erica Eisdorfer: Reader, Writer, Bookseller, Defender of Your Freedom to Read

As we kick off Banned Books Week, we welcome a guest post today from someone committed to the freedom to read. Erica Eisdorfer is more than just a booklover, she’s a novelist and a bookseller, too, and she’s had first-hand experience on the censorship front.–ellen Banned Books Week 2010 is the 29th annual celebration of our freedom to read. The… Continue Reading Erica Eisdorfer: Reader, Writer, Bookseller, Defender of Your Freedom to Read

Celebrating Banned Books Week 2010

We’re revving our engines in anticipation of Banned Books Week 2010, which starts tomorrow and runs through October 2. Banned Books Week is a weeklong celebration of the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. The project is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the… Continue Reading Celebrating Banned Books Week 2010

Chad Williams takes the page 99 test

Hot off the press this month is a new book by Chad L. Williams, Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era. In the book, Williams reveals the central role of African American soldiers in World War I and how they, along with race activists and ordinary citizens alike, committed to fighting for democracy at home… Continue Reading Chad Williams takes the page 99 test

Cuba Scholar Lou Perez Says End the Embargo

Renowned scholar of Cuba Louis A. Perez Jr. makes the case at CNN.com for an end to the failed U.S. policy of embargo against Cuba. He begins: In April 2009, the White House released a presidential memorandum declaring that democracy and human rights in Cuba were “national interests of the United States.” Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela repeated the… Continue Reading Cuba Scholar Lou Perez Says End the Embargo

Paulo Freire, Lula, and the Next Step for Brazil

We welcome a guest post today from Andrew J. Kirkendall, author of Paulo Freire and the Cold War Politics of Literacy. In his political biography of Freire (1921-97), a native of Brazil’s impoverished northeast who developed adult literacy training techniques that remain influential today, Kirkendall gives new perspectives on the history of the Cold War, the meanings of radicalism, and… Continue Reading Paulo Freire, Lula, and the Next Step for Brazil

Rosh Hashana evolves over generations in North Carolina

With the start of Rosh Hashana at sundown this evening, we welcome a guest post from Leonard Rogoff, author of Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina. Published in association with the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina, Down Home is part of a larger documentary project of the same name that includes a film (view the trailer) and a… Continue Reading Rosh Hashana evolves over generations in North Carolina

The Chancellor and the Entrepreneur: Joining Forces for the Future

Rolling off the presses now is a brand new book by UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp and UNC entrepreneur-in-residence Buck Goldstein. In Engines of Innovation: The Entrepreneurial University in the Twenty-First Century, Thorp and Goldstein make the case for the pivotal role of research universities as agents of societal change. They argue that universities must use their vast intellectual and financial… Continue Reading The Chancellor and the Entrepreneur: Joining Forces for the Future

Islamophobia and Our Love of Shopping

We welcome a guest post today from Susan Nance, author of How the Arabian Nights Inspired the American Dream, 1790-1835. Americans have always shown a fascination with the people, customs, and legends of the “East,” such as the stories of the Arabian Nights, the performances of Arab belly dancers and acrobats, the feats of turban-wearing vaudeville magicians, etc. In her… Continue Reading Islamophobia and Our Love of Shopping

Sport, Religion, and Native Identity

Michael Zogry, author of Anetso, the Cherokee Ball Game: At the Center of Ceremony and Identity guest blogs over at First Peoples, New Directions today about anetso, the precursor to field lacrosse which blends sport, religious ritual, and cultural identity. An excerpt: Throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century, certain members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation have… Continue Reading Sport, Religion, and Native Identity

“Mama Dip is a blessing.”

That’s what employee–and prison inmate–Paul Scott says. Scott is one of the many inmates who have worked their way through Mama Dip’s Kitchen through a work-release program as they prepare to re-enter society upon completing prison sentences in Orange and Durham counties. We’ve written before about Mildred “Mama Dip” Council, who is a Chapel Hill institution in her own right,… Continue Reading “Mama Dip is a blessing.”

Malinda Maynor Lowery Named One of HNN’s Top Young Historians

Congratulations to Malinda Maynor Lowery, author of Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation, who was recently named one of History News Network’s Top Young Historians. HNN’s feature on Lowery includes a list of professional accomplishments (did you know she has produced award-winning documentary films?) as well as a personal statement from… Continue Reading Malinda Maynor Lowery Named One of HNN’s Top Young Historians

Southern Cultures journal now available for Kindle

We are delighted to announce that new and recent issues of the popular journal Southern Cultures are now available in ebook format. Light up your Kindle with the spring 2010 issue, the summer 2010 special “southern lives” issue, and the fall 2010 special roots music issue. (Check out all three issues at the UNC Press website.) And if you want… Continue Reading Southern Cultures journal now available for Kindle

Faith, Fact, and Religious Relics

We welcome a guest post today from Bernadette McNary-Zak, coeditor of Resurrecting the Brother of Jesus: The James Ossuary Controversy and the Quest for Religious Relics, a collection of essays exploring the circumstances of an archaeological hoax in which a box of skeletal remains was passed off as belonging to James, the brother of Jesus. In this post, she discusses… Continue Reading Faith, Fact, and Religious Relics

“We Are Standing on Beautiful History”

Today we welcome a guest post from Tiya Miles, author of The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story. Last weekend she attended a gathering to celebrate the historic plantation home and held a signing event for her new book. Over the course of her day, past and present were juxtaposed in an experience that truly gave life to… Continue Reading “We Are Standing on Beautiful History”

Loveman’s ‘No Higher Law’ gets the page 99 test

The “Page 99 Test” takes its name and inspiration from Ford Madox Ford, who said,”Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.” As part of the Campaign for the American Reader, Marshal Zeringue has built a blog based on the idea, asking authors to turn to page 99 of… Continue Reading Loveman’s ‘No Higher Law’ gets the page 99 test

Obama’s HIV/AIDS Strategy: Real Change or Pocket Change?

We welcome a guest post today from Jennifer Brier, author of Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis. When the Obama administration announced a new HIV/AIDS strategy, we asked Brier to unpack the news and help give historical perspective to the new plan.–ellen Reading President Obama’s new HIV/AIDS strategy, released on July 13, 2010, was alternately exciting and… Continue Reading Obama’s HIV/AIDS Strategy: Real Change or Pocket Change?

On the Iroquois Lacrosse Team, Sovereignty, and Sport

Last week we watched with interest as a significant story unfolded with the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team. As they attempted to travel to the UK for international competition, they were entangled in a visa dispute. Although the team traveled internationally just a couple years ago using their Iroquois passports, British authorities refused to admit them to the UK this time… Continue Reading On the Iroquois Lacrosse Team, Sovereignty, and Sport

Malinda Maynor Lowery: Troubles Decolonizing a Colonial History

Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation is one of the inaugural books in the multi-press collaborative series First Peoples, New Directions in Indigenous Studies. In a guest post for the First Peoples blog, author Malinda Maynor Lowery (Lumbee) writes about how she continues to navigate the effects of colonialism in her… Continue Reading Malinda Maynor Lowery: Troubles Decolonizing a Colonial History